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Democracy: a tricky concept

I attended another pro-EU/anti-Brexit rally yesterday (haven’t been to so many demos since I was a student).
One of the handful of random hecklers who wandered past the part of the Newcastle Rally where I was standing, and attempted to comment on proceedings (and who appeared to have had quite a lot to drink) yelled “Democracy”. That was his only contribution to the debate.
The referendum has achieved something that even Earl Grey, whose monument we were gathered around (he was responsible for starting the move to a universal franchise in Britain) didn’t manage to achieve: it has put this word “Democracy” in the mouths of millions of people who don’t actually understand what it means.
If you ask someone to vote based on the premise: ‘Do you want an extra £350m a week for the NHS, and a free unicorn for every household?’ the answer’s going to be pretty obvious for the third of the electorate that doesn’t have the gumption to say: ‘Hang on a minute – unicorns don’t exist. And HOW much money for the NHS?’
The dictionary definition of democracy is “A system of government where people choose their rulers by voting for them”. It is not “mob rule based on lies”.
This is the biggest task for those of who see the concept of a “good” Brexit for the mirage it is: to keep bringing forward convincing arguments for why a referendum based on misinformation and blatant lies is in NO sense an example of democracy!
As Akash Paun points out in this article, the referendum and the British Constitution are very strange bedfellows.